Thursday, April 23, 2009

Yesterday we decided to try giving Teresa a bottle of breast milk to see if she would take it (one previous attempt when she was around 3 weeks old hadn't worked). I had about an ounce of milk* in the fridge from that morning, so I warmed it in a dish of warm water and David offered it to Teresa when she appeared hungry midday. She accepted the nipple without much hesitation and proceeded to drink more than half an ounce. Not bad for a first time! Afterwards, I nursed her until she was satisfied.

Although we do not plan to offer Teresa bottles often, it's good to know she will accept her nourishment from one just in case we need/want to leave her in someone's care for a couple hours or if anything should cause me to not be able to nurse her for a short while (hospital stay, medication, etc.). To that end, I have a half dozen bottles of expressed milk in our deep freezer.

*(only read this if nursing details don't make you uncomfortable!) This ounce of milk was not expressed - it was caught while I nursed Teresa from the opposite side first thing in the morning. I am amazed at how much will just drip out of me due to let-down when I'm full! Catching while nursing is an easy way to get foremilk to store, though I know I should express some hindmilk to add to it.

1 comment:

So glad Teresa took a bottle. My lactation consultant suggested we do the first bottle at 3 weeks, and then do one every week or so after that, so that's what we've been doing. Nathan went through spurts of refusing a bottle so we'll see what happens this time around. But so far, so good!